's time for t"the situation room"withwolfblitzer. >>>happening now, new questions about the sex scandal that toppled the cia director. why did a republican congressman now about it before the white house? >>> also, new information about the woman at the center of the storm. her past makes the present all the more shocking. >>> plus, a crack, a serious crack in republican opposition to raising tax rates on the rich. a leading conservative now seems to be opening the door. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." >>> intriguing new twists and turns in the scandal that's gripping washington, indeed the nation and much of the world. the affair that led general dividend petraeus to resign as director of the central intelligence agency. we're finding out that at least one lawmaker here in washington may have learned of it ahead of the president and there are questions about the investigation that led to petraeus' stunning downfall. brian todd's been working the story for us and getting new information. brian, tell our viewers what's the latest? >> we found out that the house

of the mayo clinic. >>> it is time for "the situation room"andwolfblitzer. wolf? >>ted, thanks very much. happening now. another top commander in a widening scandal swirling around general david petraeus. john allen is now the subject of a pentagon investigation. it centers around hundreds, possibly thousands of e-mails sent to this woman. details of where she fits into an increasingly tangled web of relationships. i'll talk about all of this with the chair of the senate intelligence committee. dianne feinstein says it is like something off the front page of a tab roid mloid magazine and s demanding answers. i'm wolf blitzer and you're in "the situation room." >>> we begin with stunning twists in the scandal that brought down the head of the cia, general david petraeus. another u.s. general is caught in the same tangled web. john allen, top commander in afghanistan, is being investigated by the pentagon for allegedly sending inappropriate e-mails to a married woman, the same woman whose complaint of threatening e-mails from general petraeus' lover cracked the scandal wide open. barbara s

:00 p.m.eastern.wolfblitzerwillbe all over it for you. >>> failed republican vice presidential nominee is reassessing after election night. he has no regrets, he says. here's what he said on abc news last night. >> was that the campaign paul ryan would have run? >> oh, zbogosh, you know, i thi when you join a ticket three months out, you join somebody's campaign. i was really impressed with the way that mitt and ann brought us into the fold. so i was very encouraged by that. i really enjoyed it. and i wanted to run a big campaign on ideas. we did that. >> the, oh, gosh, part there. also in the abc interview, ryan said there's a silver lining to losing, which is more time with his kids. >> just this last weekend i got to go to both of my boys' basketball games, i got to go to two of my daughters' volleyball games. >> so there's an upside to losing? >> we are a very close family. >> ryan said his kids are relieved they won't have to move and change schools. in other interviews, ryan has raised eyebrows because he attributed the obama victory in a rise in the urban vote. >> it is

very own anderson cooper. that's it for me. i'm going to hand it over now to myfriendwolfblitzerin"the situation room." >>> don, thanks very much. happening now, fighting between israel and hamas militants gets more explosive with an attack that could help turn the conflict into a full fledged ground war. also, david petraeus emerges from the shadow of the scandal to testify before congress. did he clear up confusion about the attack on the u.s. diplomats in benghazi? and another high-profile republican now running away from mitt romney after he tried to blame his loss on so-called gifts from president obama. james carville and ari fleischer, they are here this hour. we're going to talk about the gop's hand wringing and back stabbing. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." >>> hamas militants -- [ gunfire ] -- there they are. hamas militants in gaza keep unleashing rocket attacks on israel and get alarmingly close to jerusalem. a new provocation as they continue the air assault on what it calls terrorist targets in za. the death toll i rising along wiars of anall-out

targets. now hamas is warning that the gates of hell have been opened.i'mwolfblitzer. you'rein "the situation room." >>> eight days after his re-election, president obama faced reporters in the midst of an unfolding scandal and with a potential economic crisis holding over his head. but he only got riled up when he responded to republican criticism of his united nations ambassador susan rice. more on that coming up. standby. but first, the president's careful responses about the investigation of this former cia chief david petraeus and on negotiations to avoid what's called the fiscal cliff. our white house correspondent jessica yellin was over at the east strip of the white house. you had a chance to speak to the president and ask him about that looming fiscal cliff. >> reporter: hi, wolf. that's right, i did. i asked the president why anyone should believe that he won't cave off of his position that he will not extend bush tax cuts for the wealthiest since he did just that in 2010. he said that he made his case explicitly clear during the last election. and that the majority of am

city witnessing the violence and here's what shetoldwolfblitzerthisafternoon. watch. >> reporter: okay. i'm going to move out of the way. i'm going to let you get a look here. i'm going to let you get a look at what is going on. i can see the black smoke. it's difficult to capture on camera but you saw that flash. this is what we have been dealing with all day. we have also been dealing with, i'm sorry, the power has just gone out, we have been dealing with power outages, wolf, but this feels like war. it may not have been declared but it feels like war to the ci civilians who live here. >> sarah joins us live from gaza. what are you seeing. we saw the air strikes earlier in the day. what's going on now? >> reporter: the same thing throughout the entire night. we have been hearing some teeth rattling blasts over gaza. we do know there have been at least a dozen blasts over the past few hours. very, very, very loud, strong blasts here. it's very dark. i'm going to kind of move out of the way just to give you a look. it's dark here and power is out in much of the city. those who ha

wolfblitzer. giventhe fact we're so busy with breaking news he is probably busy as well. [ knock on door ] cool. you found it. wow. nice place. yeah. [ chuckles ] the family thinks i'm out shipping these. smooth move. you used priority mail flat rate boxes. if it fits, it ships for a low, flat rate. paid for postage online and arranged a free pickup. and i'm gonna track them online, too. nice. between those boxes and this place, i'm totally staying sane this year. do i smell snickerdoodles? maybe. [ timer dings ] got to go. priority mail flat rate boxes. online pricing starts at $5.15. only from the postal service. >>> a thunderous night of bombs and rockets lighting up the sky. israel into gaza, and now jerusalem embroiled in a dangerous escalation of violence rib that is threatening to explode into an all-out ground war as rockets land near jerusalem and troops amass near the border with gaza, and make no mistake, there is a lot at stake for the united states as well. ambassador to the united nations is here to talk about this impending crisis. mr. ambassador, thank you for tak

.m. easterntime.wolfblitzerishosting that, and we will obviously carry that for you live when it happens. want to talk a little bit more about the fiscal cliff. chief business correspondent ali velshi joins us. you heard brianna talk about this meeting with ceos about that. how much of that is pr and how much of that is really critical conversation? >> well, the very conservative leaders, and anti-tax leaders, have called the whole thing pr. they think it's giving the president cover. you see there the ceos of aetna, xerox, american express, honeywell, walmart, ge, dow, procter & gamble, ford, pepsi. these are not people who are hostile to the president, so is it giving him cover? these are big employers. the president needs to discuss the fiscal cliff and taxes with them. what the allegation is is that there are no representatives of small business there and no representatives of the don't touch taxes, the grover norquist u.s. chamber of commerce group represented there. that's a relationship the president doesn't have. >> i think it could be you're right i don't know that all of th you

are fighting over. >>> just a while agoourwolfblitzerspokewith former british prime minister tony blair about the cross-border battalions between israel and hamas, and wolf joins us now, and, wolf, i know that he also serves as the peace envoy, the middle east peace envoy. does he believe that peace can be achieved here? >> well, he is not very upbeat in the short-term. he is obviously like everyone else would like to see some sort of immediate cease-fire to stop the killing on the israeli and the palestinian side in gaza. he knows there's a lot of diplomatic activity going on behind the scenes. he himself has been in touch with most of the parties not directly with hamas since as a representative of what's called the quartet, including the quartet and european union. the u.s. and european union don't recognize hamas. they regard hamas as a terrorist organization, but there have been -- he has been involved with egypt, obviously, turkey, many of the other parties who are working feverishly behind the scenes to get some sort of cease-fire. look, if there is a cease-fire, that's just the